Ambulance service struggle continues

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published 8:00 pm, Sunday, April 17, 2005

Last fall, an ad hoc Emergency Medical Services Advisory Committee recommended hiring two paid ambulance personnel to supplement the weekday force provided by Bethel's two volunteer fire departments.
In January, the Stony Hill Volunteer Fire Department voted overwhelmingly for the proposal.
But Bethel's Volunteer Fire Department on South Street voted just as overwhelmingly against it.
The need to improve ambulance staffing came from the Stony Hill department, where daytime staffing is a problem.
But without both departments involved in a paid, day-time ambulance service, there would not be enough ambulance calls to cover the expense of two paid EMS staff. Costs are reimbursed by billing patients' insurance.
"Above all the focus has to be the care of the patient," said First Selectman Alice Hutchinson. At the same time, however, she doesn't want "to hit the taxpayer with this (expense)."
That's why Hutchinson is looking at another item already in the town budget - paramedic service - to help free up money for a paid ambulance staff.
Bethel shares a paramedic with Redding and Newtown and is in the midst of negotiating a new three-town paramedic contract. Once that's done, Hutchinson said money saved by the town when the paramedic bills patients' insurance could possibly be used to hire paid ambulance personnel for the Stony Hill department.
Staffing is not a problem during the nighttime or on the weekends, nor is there a problem with firefighting services. But because many volunteers work outside of Bethel, weekday staffing during the day has become a problem in recent years for ambulance service, which is the bulk of the emergency calls.
In recent months, however, there has been a big improvement in the response times for ambulance services, according to police Sgt. David Bruckenthal, who is the director of the town's communications center where all 911 calls come in, whether fire, police or emergency medical services.
From Jan. 1 through March 22, the average ambulance response time for the Bethel Fire Department was 6 minutes and 27 seconds and for the Stony Hill Fire Department it was 9 minutes and 19 seconds.
Those times are much quicker than the times compiled by Bruckenthal last July 6 to Oct. 31. The average ambulance response time for the Bethel Fire Department then was 12 minutes and 26 seconds, and for the Stony Hill Volunteer Fire Department it was 15 minutes and 51 seconds.
"Members are making a concerted effort to get ambulances out during the day," said Kenny Parciasepe, chief of the Stony Hill Fire Department. The department also is working with the town to get "some funding for a paid ambulance staff."
Despite the faster response times, Hutchinson said staffing issues remain. "We don't want to burn them (the volunteers) out."